IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q2 2018 - 105

It is well known that the frontend is key for the outstanding performance
and energy efficiency of natural vision systems.

IV. Conclusions
Applications targeting image analysis instead of just capture are gaining relevance within the ecosystem of imaging technologies and are expected to grow at rapid pace
in the near future. Advances in sensor technologies, heterogeneous packaging and processor embedding help to
reduce the SWaP of vision systems. However, architectural
changes may also be required for large-scale deployment
of vision systems in applications demanding minimum
SWaP and large speed. It is well known that the frontend is key for the outstanding performance and energy
efficiency of natural vision systems. CVIS are meant to
emulate functional attributes of these natural front-ends,
namely parallelism, sensor-processor concurrency, and
data reduction. CVISs embed computer vision techniques
at the sensor focal plane, and are suitable candidates for
replacing conventional imagers (CIS) as front-ends of efficient vision systems. The CNNUM paradigm, devised by
Profs. Chua and Roska, provided a unifying framework for
conciliating CVIS chip design with digital processor concepts, on the one hand, and computer vision concepts, on
the other hand. CVISs chip prototypes devised at IMSE
Vision Lab and AnaFocus Ltd. demonstrate the suitability
of compact, fast and energy efficient vision systems.
Acknowledgments
This research has been partially funded by Junta de
Andalucía, Proyectos Excelencia-Conv. 2012 TIC 2338,
Spanish government projects MINECO TEC2015-66878C3-1-R&TEC2015-66878-C3-3-R. Support from different
ONR-USA contracts is also acknowledged.
Contributions of the teams from CITIUS (V. Brea, M.
Suárez, P. López, D. Cabello) and AnaFocus (F.J. JimñenezGarrido and R. Domñinguez-Castro) are also acknowledged.
Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez (IEEE Fellow,
1999) received the bachelor's (Universidad de Sevilla, 1976) and Ph.D. degrees in
physics-electronics (Universidad de Sevilla, 1982) with several national and international awards, including the IEEE
Rogelio Segovia Torres Award (1981). After research stays
in University of California-Berkeley and Texas A&M University he became a Full Professor of Electronics at the University of Sevilla in 1995.
He co-founded the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla, a joint undertaken of the Consejo Superior de InvessEcOnd quartEr 2018

tigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the University of Sevilla
and started a Research Lab on Analog and Mixed-Signal
Circuits for Sensors and Communications. In 2001 he was
the main promotor and co-founder of the start-up company AnaFocus Ltd. and served as CEO, on leave from the
University, until June 2009, when the company reached
maturity as a worldwide provider of smart CMOS imagers
and vision systems-on-chip.
AnaFocus was founded on the basis of his early patents. Dr. Rodríguez-Vázquez holds eight patents.
While in Academia, he conducted R&D activities on
mixed-signal microelectronics for massive sensory data,
including vision chips and neuro-fuzzy controllers. He
also pioneered the application of chaos to instrumentation and communications. His team designed the first,
world-wide, integrated circuits with controllable chaotic behavior and the design and prototyping of the first
world-wide chaos-based communication MoDem chips.
His team made also significant contributions to the area
of structured analog and mixed-signal design and the
area of data converter design, including the elaboration
of advanced teaching materials on this topic for different industrial courses and the production of two widely
quoted books on the design of high-performance CMOS
sigma-delta converters.
Many high-performance mixed-signal chips were successfully designed by him and his co-workers in the framework of different R&D programs and contracts. These
included three generation of vision chips for high-speed applications, analog front-ends for XDSL MoDems, ADCs for
wireless communications, ADCs for automotive sensors,
chaotic signals generators, complete MoDems for powerline communications, etc. Many of these chips were stateof-the-art in their respective fields. Some of them entered in
massive production. He was also active regarding industrial
training. He produced teaching materials on data converters that were employed by several companies. His courses
got the Quality Label of EuroPractice.
His research work has received some 8,900 citations;
he has an h-index of 48 and an i10-index of 173 according
to Google Scholar. Dr. Rodríguez-Vázquez has received a
number of awards for his research: the IEEE GuilleminCauer Best Paper Award, two Wiley's IJCTA Best Paper
Awards, two IEEE ECCTD Best Paper Awards, one IEEEISCAS Best Paper Award, one SPIE-IST Electronic Imaging Best Paper Award, the IEEE ISCAS Best Demo-Paper
Award, and the IEEE ICECS Best Demo-Paper Award.
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